How Many Times Can You Race Around the Tree Before You Catch Me?

They all sat down in the back lounge for their end of week meeting. Something Jax had established once they started touring in a bus. Jake, Mikey, and Christian had a habit of forgetting anything long term. Jax however just liked to check in on everyone. Tonight would be different though.

"Alright,so how was everyone's week?" Jax asked as she closed the door to the venue's lounge.

There was a "good" consensus.

"Cool. No problems, complaints, need to fixes?"

"Actually yeah I think I wanna change the strings I'm using. I keep breaking them during the show and it's becoming a bit of a pain." Mikey admitted.

"Did you want to go to guitar center tomorrow? There's one less than a mile from the venue." Jax had her computer out taking notes.

"Isn't tomorrow a day off?" She shook her head at Chrisitian's question.

"No, we're headlining a one off show that night remember?" Jax sighed when Jake answered.

"No, that show fell through. We're doing a radio show and a signing tomorrow." The guys all went "oooooh." as Jax sighed yet again.

"Now that that's covered we need to talk about Warped, Uproar, and the third tour offer."

"Third tour?" Niki seemed extremely interested.

"Yeah, So I was talking to Jeremy again. They're looking for some bands for a run in the fall. Arenas, bigger venues, massive stage shows. The only problem is that it interferes with Uproar. We would have to back out of uproar to fit in August as the time for you guys to go into the studio. If you did that, I'd be going out with ADTR..." She trailed off letting that sink in for the guys.

"Would you be coming back to us for the shows in September and October?" Jax nodded twice while typing to confirm to the guys that she would be back working with them for that tour.

There were a few moments of silence that followed.

"It'll give you guys sometime to think about it. We wouldn't even need to confirm until mid July. I was just making you aware of the options since I'm apparently doubling as your booking manager." Jax sighed.

"When did that happen?" Niki asked.

"Since he tried to put you guys on a Blood On The Dancefloor show..." The guys all began laughing.

"Yeah exactly, anyways. Try and get me an answer about the ADTR show before we start Warped please. I do need to let Jeremy know what's up." Jake nodded. He had the tendency to be the "band leader."

"Anything else?" The guys all shook their heads to Jax' question.

"Alright so The next week, starting with tomorrow, The radio show and signing in Grand Rapids, full show the next day. Then a show in Chicago. Then we hit St. Louis. We are playing Fubar. I will have Jaime in the van all night. Fubar is notorious for break ins and that shit isn't happening to us. I will be Mikey's tech for that night. Then we hit Lincoln, Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Albuquerque. Now we have a week before we switch into the bus for Warped after that. Did you guys want to fly home first or just stay in Texas for a week?"

"What are we going to do with the van and trailer?" Sean, part time driver and drummer, would always ask this in hopes of not having to drive sometimes.

"We'd leave the van in Texas. I'd fly to get it after Warped. The trailer would come with us."

"So we are in a bus for Warped?" The guys had only been in a bus once and preferred it above all else.

"Yes and only because it's Warped. That's a good lead into what I wanted to bring up next. If we do the ADTR tour, I want to do it in a van." They all groaned.

"Look, It's more money in our pockets." She uses ours because their label pays her as if she was part of the band. The band insisted on it.

"It's just one more tour in a van. We almost have enough the just buy a bandwagon." The guys already knew this. Jax had gone over the numbers with the band almost two years ago. They had been touring in a van even though they had the money to tour in a bus.

"Aren't the other bands on that tour all going to be in a bus?" Niki asked.

"Why does it matter? Since when do you guys need to show up in the bigger transport? This is business not a mating contest of "whose bus is bigger" You can compare dick size after tour." The Jake laughed at Niki's flustered face and Jax' ever eloquent words.

The guys laughter efficiently ended the meeting. She'd go over the van stuff with them again tomorrow. Her thoughts were interrupted by some music playing from the next room over.

"Another fucking party?" Jax groaned and stood.

"What are you doing?" Jake stood to stop her.

"I'm going to ask them to turn it down for another like 10 minutes so we can finish our meeting." Jake tried to stop her, but she continued to go anyways.

She walked out the door and down the hall to the other room and entered without knocking.

"SURPRISE!" She was covered in confetti and streamers and someone gave her a party hat.

"What the hell?" She asked as the music turned down a bit and everyone started surrounding her.

"It's your surprise birthday party!" Jason smiled and hugged her.

She laughed and hugged him back.

"Aweee thanks guys. This is awesome!"

Jason ushered her over to a table where there was a massive cake or should we say "cake" and some presents. The cake looks like a pile of crumbs and icing with a few candles stuck in it.

"Yeah, we accidentally brought the nice cake onstage and when Lionel tried to bring it back in one of the guys tripped him. So no real cake but close enough." Jax laughed at Jason's explanation.

"A for effort" The guys all cheered and after Jason had her seated they sang her happy birthday.

After that the bands all spent the night celebrating. The tour was almost over and it was their last day of tomorrow, accept for Jax and her band. They had the interview tomorrow but they didn't have to leave until around 6 AM for their 2 PM interview and acoustic show.

Around one am Jax tried to sneak out of the party to go back to the room. She was in the middle of tour show negotiations for off days from Warped. She also had got en email earlier today she was rather excited to look at.

"Where are you going?" Jake had followed her out the door.

"Oh just going to finish sending some emails." He smiled and grabbed her hand.

"I'll come keep you company." She smiled back at him.

Jake and Jax had an unusual relationship. The guys all understood knowing the context behind it. It was just them coming up as best friends. They told each other everything and helped each other out in all their times of need.

JAX

"What are we looking at today?" Jake sat down in the chair next to me as I opened my laptop.

"Well I'm try to book some shows during off days on Warped. You guys are never happy unless you've played 7 shows in a day." Jake chuckled. He knew this all too well.

"That's us ha. Did you look at doing those acoustic shows this summer?"

Jake and Mikey had approached me about doing acoustic shows every day on Warped. Naturally, I've been trying to get that done and we were close.

"Yep, I'm gettin' there. We also still have all of you in the BandHappy tent this summer. How do you guys feel about doing some line shows?" He looked at me thoughtfully.

"You mean like from 5 years ago? The big speakers and such?" I nodded and smiled at him.

"Would Production allow that? We're a main stage band, it tends to cause riots...." I gave a small nod in agreement.

"Yeah you're right. I just know how you guys are about playing multiple shows." I typed away at my computer finishing off an offer for El Paso on June 16th.

There was half an hour of silence. Jake watched my type as I replied to promoters about shows in Anaheim, Pomona, San Diego, Sacramento,Salt Lake City, Providence, and Colorado Springs.

"You work too hard." Jake told me as I sent my last email.

He had rest his head on my shoulder and was tracing the tattoos on my left hand on my lap as I scrolled through emails and information with the other. This was something he told me everyday, but it was all necessary.

"You know that this is all necessary. Remember when you guys tried to do the in the beginning?"

Jake groaned and buried his face in my shoulder. I chuckled and continued reading through the day sheets for Warped, making sure there were no errors.

"That's what I thought."

He moved to watch me work again as I finally got to the email I had been wanting to read all day.

"You're getting a Masters?" He sat up and stared at me as I smiled.

"I'm thinking about it."

"Jax, you do not have time for that. You're barely sleeping as is."

He shifted his chair to face directly at me. I ignored him and filtered through the files.

"Jax..." I ignored him and continued to read knowing exactly what he had to say.

This conversation came up once about a year ago during my first tour with them. I was so tired all the time during those few classes I had. However, I had learned now. I was better with time management and I knew I could do it. Jake however disagreed.

He reached over and took my computer, closing it and placing it to the side. I only sighed knowing I wasn't getting it back. His nightly tactic of preventing me from doing what I had to do.

"Abigail Amelia Ajax....Please don't stress yourself out.... It's going to kill you eventually. You know I'm always here if you need help, but you can't keep doing this to yourself.... please just...put it off for a little longer or maybe you shouldn't-"

"Don't even finish that sentence Jake. I will never leave you guys and you know it..." I grabbed his hand and he sighed.

"I just need something else....If I'm not running full force I'm broke and bored, and if i'm running full force I'll wear myself out. It's just a back up plan....nothing permanent..."

"In the end, you're going to do whatever you want and I can't stop you. I, however, can remove you from our team." He waved me off when I tried to speak.

"That's your warning...."